By Joe Ramos: Ever since the Marcos Maidana vs. Erik Morales fight was announced, all of the articles I read on the internet talked about how Maidana was going to totally destroy Morales in their April 9th fight at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Everyone knew that this was going to be a tune-up fight for Maidana before he faced some of the more so called elite talent of the light welterweight division. The problem is, nobody told Morales.

Last Saturday night the 34-year-old Morales (51-7 35 KO’s) took us for a ride in his DeLorean. This time it wasn’t to 1955 and he didn’t need the help of Doc Brown to get back to the future. Instead Morales brought us back to 2005 when he was 28 years old and still in the prime of his career. Morales after deciding to give away the first 4 rounds to the younger and stronger Maidana (30-2 27 KO’s) and having his right eye almost completely shut after the 2nd round came alive in the 5th. From which point I thought Morales won 6 of the last 8 rounds, giving Morales a draw against the more aggressive brawler from Argentina.

Morales timed his counter punches well in the latter part of the fight and even had Maidana wobbled and looking discouraged on several occasions during the fight. Not only that, but the punches that Maidana landed on him didn’t seem to bother the former World Champion all that much. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not believe for a second that Morales can win a title in the light welterweight division. But what he did do was make a huge statement to anyone at 140 lbs. And that was “Be ready for a war”.

Maidana was made to order for Morales. He’s slow, predictable and is there to get hit, but I think what shocked Maidana and everyone else in attendance and watching on PPV was how well Morales stood up to the punches without getting knocked out or even knocked down for that matter. With all that said, I believe Morales would have a huge problem with the better boxers in the division like Amir Khan and Bradley due to the noticeable disadvantage he would have in hand speed and boxing ability. But to all other comers in and around 140 lbs if it’s a brawl you are looking for “El Terrible” is your guy.

Furthermore to all of the boxing experts out there that had Morales being pummeled in the first few rounds of the fight i have to ask “Hello McFly? Anybody home?”